Power and pressure: African media and the extractive sector.

• Author: Schiffrin, Anya
• Position: Report

Journalism in Africa has come far in recent decades. The decline of one-party dictatorships, which traditionally kept a grip on the press, has brought about rapid changes. (1) The number of media outlets has expanded and in many countries, such as South Africa and Nigeria, the press is now known for being lively and outspoken. The old days in which the government controlled the one broadcaster, strictly licensed just a few newspapers and kept a tight grip on newsprint allocation are gone in most countries. (2) From having a few dozen media outlets at the end of the colonial period, Africa now has hundreds. Across the continent, small newspapers and radio stations have sprung up, many with just a few thousand listeners and tiny staffs. The rapid expansion of new technology also bodes well for journalistic freedom. Online publications also allow wider participation and the growth of citizen journalism, which can boost governance and promote transparency.

A well-functioning media in Africa is a critical development need. African governments face serious policy challenges, and many government institutions do not function effectively. High-quality journalism, which is necessary to highlight the problems that need solving, digs deep and explains the topics of the day in clear language. Despite these needs, and despite the recent changes described above, there are grave deficiencies in the quality of African journalism. (3)

Critiques of the portrayal of Africa by the Western mainstream media include its focus on crisis, disaster, war, famine and its oversimplification of social organization and ethnicity. (4) Conversely, the local African press remains a disappointment for many people on the continent. Not only would Africans like to see well-written and detailed coverage by Africans of the news that affects their lives, but they want the media to cover the important topics that will affect their country's economic and political development. With some notable exceptions, the quality of daily journalism is not as good as it should be, and there is a shortage of detailed investigative reporting on key topics. As a result, many of the African urban elites rely on foreign media such as the BBC or CNN for their daily news diet.

There are a number of exceptions to this gloomy picture and the good news is that change can and does happen quickly in many developing countries. Shifts in political regimes, media ownership, investment in education, economic growth and the introduction of new technology have all contributed to rapid improvement in countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and South Africa. Today, in many African countries, there are a handful of quality dailies and broadcasters adhering to high standards, employing the best reporters and editors they can find and paying above-average salaries.

It is also important to recognize that many of the problems endemic to African media are shared by journalists all over the world in both developing and developed countries. Many of the criticisms made about newspapers and television reporting in Africa can be made about media in other parts of the world. One must also remember that what African journalists are being asked to do (i.e. cover in great detail all kinds of technical topics related to economic development) is not a kind of journalism seen frequently in the Western press either. An in-depth investigative story on mining or oil companies appears only rarely in places like the New York Times or Financial Times. When these types of articles do appear, it is often because the journalist was helped by government investigators or tipped off by short stories that appeared in the local press.

This article argues that one of the reasons for the poor performance of African journalism is the difficult conditions under which African journalists work. This has naturally affected their reporting. Underpaid, poorly trained and working under both political and commercial pressures, many African journalists suffer from the devaluing of their profession, which has left them vulnerable and isolated. Typifying these conditions, in countries such as Ghana and Nigeria, some journalists are not given a salary but simply left to rely on payments from sources. "The main problem facing the African media is the lack of [financial] resources," one Ghanaian editor told me recently. (5)

Improving the quality of media in Africa requires an understanding of both the importance of a well-functioning media and the reasons for its failure. Therefore, this paper begins with an examination of the link between the role of the media and economic development, followed by an articulation of the key challenges facing journalists in Africa today. These challenges are illustrated through a case study of African coverage of the extractive sector.

JOURNALISM AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The hardships described in this article affect African journalists covering most beats. However I would argue that the implications are particularly serious for journalists covering subjects related to economics and development. A journalist who does not have a background in literary criticism may write an uninformed book review, but the consequences will be limited. A journalist that covers economics, without being educated in the subject, can cause harm by misinforming his readers.

There is a nascent but excellent literature documenting the role of the media in promoting economic development. Works by Alexander Dyck, Tim Besley, Roumeen Islam and others have shown that an active media can help expose corruption and promote fair elections. (6) Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has demonstrated the role of the media in preventing famine. (7) The media can not only expose wrongdoing but can also help decide development policy by putting topics on the agenda for public discussion and covering topics in a way that educates the public and policymakers and helps societies decide how they want to approach certain developmental questions. (8)

In short, having a well-informed and well-developed media aids a country's political and economic development. It has become commonplace to argue that good governance is important for development. The standard argument is that democracy prevents the abuses that are common in its absence and is a necessary, but of course not sufficient, part of an effective system of checks and balances. It is not sufficient partly because democracies can give rise to populist leaders who may make promises that cannot be fulfilled, encouraging their countries to follow unsustainable policies. Countries need to decide how they want to tackle matters such as trade regimes, privatization, banking regulation, setting up of stock markets, land reform and exchange rate regimes. A lively and well-informed debate on these topics, in the media as well as in other fora, is necessary if democratic processes are to lead to decisions that are consistent with long-term robust and equitable development. An uninformed citizenry can be misled into supporting policies that are not in the interests of a majority of the citizens.

The link between an effective media and economic development is illustrated by the coverage of the extractive sector. In much of Africa, the wealth from the extractive sectors (oil, gas and mining) poses challenges for African governments. Nigeria is often pointed to as an example of poorly managed natural resources. Despite having had oil income since the 1960s, $380 billion in revenues is estimated to have been stolen by corrupt politicians. (9) In 2002, per capita income had fallen to about one-fourth of what it was in the mid-1970s. (10) Nigeria's GDP per capita was only $1,161 in 2007, and 54 percent of the population lives on less than one dollar a day. (11) There are a number of nongovernmental organizations working in Nigeria to improve governance, including the New York-based Revenue Watch Institute and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. Many of these groups are committed to finding ways to ensure that the country's resources are used to promote the country's development. As their names indicate, these groups believe that a more informed citizenry is essential. The focus is on watching where the revenue goes and on advocating greater transparency in the processes by which...